Congressional Special Election (last call! unstickied after NY-27 final results)

[The Mikado]

https://twitter.com/POLITICO_Steve/status/1067527363297185792

Citing "Misconduct that has been ongoing for a number of years" but refusing to give any details, the NC State Board of Elections has refused to certify NC-09's results at this time.

   Mark Harris (R)     49.3    138,893

Dan McCready (D)     48.9    137,895

Jeff Scott (Libertarian)     1.8    5,101

Is how the results currently look. NC's State Board of Elections is supposedly currently looking into misconduct and irregularities in the race. The SBOE has two options: Certify Harris at the winner later after the investigation, or call for a new election and throw the election out.

Beyond the electoral significance, I really, really want to know what they claim is the misconduct here. 0.4% is a narrow margin, but not an absurdly narrow one.

Either way, it's possible that NC-09 becomes the first special election of 2019.

[Adam Griffin]

Come on, Seat #41!

[Zaybay]

The D is probably favored in that case, due to the usual D overpreformance in specials.

[Storr]

I want to believe, but I don't want to get my hopes up...

[GeorgiaModerate]

henster posted more details in the general election night thread:

This comment on reddit is interesting.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Charlotte/comments/a10kqk/nc_elections_board_declines_to_certify_9th/ean1n30/?st=jp1g5esc&sh=15095a86

That's strange enough to warrant a deeper look.

[Xing]

I don't want to get my hopes up, especially since we all know how the right would respond to the idea of redoing the election (even if some of those who vote on that are Republicans themselves), but it would be so nice for Mark Harris not to be in the House. He's definitely the worst new member.

[The Mikado]

henster posted more details in the general election night thread:

This comment on reddit is interesting.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Charlotte/comments/a10kqk/nc_elections_board_declines_to_certify_9th/ean1n30/?st=jp1g5esc&sh=15095a86

That's strange enough to warrant a deeper look.

If nothing else, I want a reporter to visit the precinct which doubled (!) turnout between 2016 and 2018 while the county as a whole saw turnout go down 12%. Must be a fascinating place.

[Crumpets]

It's almost as though Republican accusations of voter fraud only serve to deflect and distract from their own efforts to fraudulently swing elections.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Vote to certify it, Harris won fair and square.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Vote to certify it, Harris won fair and square.

The bipartisan state board of elections evidently thinks there is sufficient reason to delay certification.  They don't need to rush if there's something in question.  (You're getting really tiresome with this, btw.)

[The Mikado]

http://www.wfae.org/post/nc-elections-investigator-seized-absentee-ballots-bladen-county#stream/0

[Person Man]

It's almost as though Republican accusations of voter fraud only serve to deflect and distract from their own efforts to fraudulently swing elections.

That's Florida politics in a nutshell.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I hope Harris loses, he’d be the second worst member of the house, only being beaten out by Steve King

[Person Man]

I hope Harris loses, he’d be the second worst member of the house, only being beaten out by Steve King

I doubt, unless he literally hates freedom, would be worse than Gohmert.

[OneJ]

The 2018 midterms are the elections that won't end. 

[Vosem]

Are there enough votes in the precincts where the results look fudged that McCready could have won the election?

[DrScholl]

If it was a unanimous vote then it's clear that the board has a good reason to be concerned. An investigation seems warranted.

[Ebsy]

Looking at the vote totals from certain precincts in Bladen County, the only conclusion is that there was massive fraud.

[Vosem]

It appears the North Carolina BOE is empowered to throw out the results of the election merely if doubt is cast upon the result; they don't actually have to demonstrate that fraud changed the result to call for a rerun.

[GeorgiaModerate]

This story is kind of personally amusing in that in my alt-1968 timeline, the election hinged on voter fraud by a county election official in North Carolina. 

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

What is strange to me is that on one hand, this seems like it should be a huge story on the face or it, and yet as far as I can tell it hasn't been picked up by any of the national media at all, nor have any of the leading house election analysts (Silver/Cohn/Wasserman) given any comment on it, suggesting this is just some technicality than can be safely ignored.

[The Mikado]

What is strange to me is that on one hand, this seems like it should be a huge story on the face or it, and yet as far as I can tell it hasn't been picked up by any of the national media at all, nor have any of the leading house election analysts (Silver/Cohn/Wasserman) given any comment on it, suggesting this is just some technicality than can be safely ignored.

It is a weird discrepancy. I think they're waiting because NC said more info on Friday.

[GeorgiaModerate]

From an expert on NC election law:

https://twitter.com/gercohen/status/1067622645858996224

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Even without any hard evidence, this seems like exactly the sort of thing Rachel Maddow would spend the first 50 minutes of her show teasing out all the rumors over.  But nope, tonight is yet another episode on Russian collusion, rehashing Senate committee testimony from last year.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Even without any hard evidence, this seems like exactly the sort of thing Rachel Maddow would spend the first 50 minutes of her show teasing out all the rumors over.  But nope, tonight is yet another episode on Russian collusion, rehashing Senate committee testimony from last year.

I think it's quite reasonable that there hasn't been much media attention on this yet.  It may well turn out to be a nothingburger.  If something that was actually fishy comes to light, then the media will (justifiably) be all over it.